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Tuesday, January 8, 2013

We finally whipped up a little floor plan to show you our plans for the basement.

Here's our new basement layout:

Note #1: The little room off the pantry (with the question mark) is a little cold room under the exterior cement stairs at the front of the house. It's very, very creepy in there.

Note #2: The guest room at the back of the house is not an addition! It's just how our house was built with an extra room sticking out the back. Weird, huh?

Now here are the five main changes we made to the original layout:

#1 - The office / play area in the diagram used to be a storage room the same size as the adjacent pantry. The door to the storage area was located in the middle of the wall, making a seating area difficult in the family room since neither the couch, loveseat, or t.v. could fit along that wall. Our original plan was to move the door off to the side, however once Alex took down most of the wall we realized how much bigger and brighter the family room looked with the whole space opened up. We gained an extra window in the family room and a spot for all of our office / sewing / craft supplies!

#2 - We closed off a doorway that led down a small hall to the laundry room. Again, the doorway took up space along a long wall in the family room where we needed to place a couch, loveseat, or t.v.

#3 - We changed the shape of the laundry room in order to create a wide, open hallway leading from the family room to all the other rooms in the basement. With the old layout, we used to have to walk through the L-shaped laundry room to get to the guest room. It was a bit of a maze. Creating a unified hallway has made such a huge difference to the overall feel of the basement. It seems so much bigger now that we can see from one end all the way to the other!

#4 - We divided up the furnace room into two areas so that down the road we can add a bathroom. Alex moved the furnace and water heater all to one side to accommodate our future plans.

#5 - Alex built a little bump-out parallel to the beam/post in the office / play area so that we will be able to install a built-in desk along the back wall and built-in shelving for toys along the side.

I'm still not sure what to do with the little spot in front of the fireplace. It seems like a great little space for a sitting area but an extra set of chairs would kind of block the path to the laundry room / hallway. Whaddayouthink?

Looks great! Would you have room for a reading chair and small side table along the wall / corner diagonally across from the fireplace? We did a huge basement reno last year and it practically doubled our living space and we are down there ALL the time! Having a craft and playroom is worth all the cost and hassle of a remodel! You'll love it. ;)

Hmmm I never thought of a little cozy spot by the side wall. I'll have to try it once we get some furniture in there. I can't wait to have a spot for all of my sewing / craft stuff. Right now it's all stored in tubs in the basement and it is so much hassle to take it all out that I don't bother sometimes!

It sure looks like you have a great plan going. Wow, your laundry room seems so big! As for you fireplace issue, I'm wondering if you can move it or is it already there? I know I've seen you talk about your basement in the past, but I just can't recall the specifics. It doesn't seem like you could place any furniture around it because it would impede the stair and hallway traffic flow. I don't know, what size is that area? Is your drawing to scale?

Also, I'm just going to throw this out there even though you didn't ask about it (hope that's okay), but perhaps you might want to move the door of the laundry room down so that it opens against the wall. I only noticed that because my husband is a builder/remodeler and I've looked at more than my fair share of house plans and that's usually how things are designed. My eye tends to go to that sort of thing from the get-go :)

The drawing is pretty much to scale, but it's off a few inches in spots because some walls are framed and insulated and some are still bare concrete so measuring was a bit tricky.

I agree the laundry room is huge! But, we're hoping to use one half for all of the storage we lost when we took out the official "storage room".

I also agree about chairs impeding the traffic flow. I'm pretty sure that spot is even a bit smaller in person. It's really awkward! The fireplace has to stay there because we converted a wood-burning stove into a gas stove that vents out of the original chimney.

Maybe once things are finished off a bit more I'll post some pictures to get some more ideas from my readers!

Thank you for the tip about the door. My husband and I both agree that your suggestion for the door in the laundry room would have been a better idea. Originally I had wanted double French doors centred along the wall so that they could be opened up and seem like a real finished room instead of a yucky basement room. Then, we changed our minds and went with a wide, single French door. Except he already installed it in the old spot that I thought I wanted it. Whoopsie!

I just discovered your blog through Bower Power. I just love it when I stumble upon an awesome blog! And I love yours! What I love most is that I can look at all of the pictures of your light colored house and live vicariously through you. Because let me tell you, My three kids would destroy that! Seriously, want them to come over for a few? LOL! What is the color you used on the wall in the living room (the one with the white slipcovered furniture, cornice board, and bamboo blinds? It is really pretty. I am going to subscribe to your blog pronto.

Thank you so much for your sweet comment and I am so glad you were able to stumble over and visit. :) :) :)

Don't forget that pictures always look better than in person and my dogs are doing a number on my rugs and furniture. My only saving grace is that the couch covers are washable and bleachable. If they weren't, I'd be in big trouble for sure!

The color on the walls in the living room is Gray Owl by Benjamin Moore mixed at 1/2 tint or 1/2 strength because I wanted a bit lighter version.